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Thursday, January 24, 2013

The Rangers held a morning optional skate here at Wells Fargo Center with 12 players on the ice as they prepare to face the winless Flyers at 7. Marty Biron was the lone goalie on the ice so expect Henrik Lundqvist to make his fourth straight start. Also, Arron Asham tested his strained groin for the first time since injuring it in Sunday’s 6-3 loss to the Penguins. He’s not ready to play yet - he’s hoping he’ll be back in the lineup Saturday against the Maple Leafs - so Kris Newbury, called up from Connecticut (AHL) last night will be in the lineup.

Chris Kreider, benched for defensive lapses and for a penalty in last night’s 4-3 overtime win over the Bruins, will be a healthy scratch so expect Taylor Pyatt to skate on the second line with Derek Stepan and Ryan Callahan. Defenseman Matt Gilroy, still waiting to play his first game this season, will be the other healthy scratch as Steve Eminger remains in the lineup as a defenseman and Stu Bickel will dress as a forward for the second straight game.

“Pyatt is a big body, he was holding onto pucks down low and I think that’s something our line needed just to create some offensive zone time,” Callahan said. “(Kreider) is young still, everybody had these expectations on him coming off the playoffs he had. But he’s still young he’s still learning but you can see how good he’s going to be, he’s got a lot of size, his speed, his shot. You’ve just got to be patient with a young guy and realize he’s still learning the game, the speed of it. He’s going to be good.”

After last night’s game, coach John Tortorella said the organization needed to discuss whether it was better for Kreider to remain with the Rangers or continue his development process with the Whale.

“I trust the organization and I trust all the decisions they make and ultimately they’ll make the right decision and have my best interests in mind,” Kreider said.
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The Rangers have made their first trade of the 2013 season, though they didn’t ship off anybody on their NHL roster.

The Rangers have acquired 25-year-old Benn Ferriero from the Penguins for center Chad Kolarik, who missed all of last season with a knee injury and has 16 goals, 19 assists in 41 games this season for Connecticut (AHL).

Ferriero has been assigned to the Whale.

Ferriero, who played four years at Boston College from 2005-09, is 5-foot-11, 185 pounds and has played 92 NHL games with the Sharks after being the Coyotes’ seventh-round pick in 2006. This season, he has four goals, 14 assists in 34 games for Wilkes-Barre/Scranton (AHL) and in 2011-12 had seven goals and one assist in 35 games for the Sharks.

As noted in the earlier blog post this morning, the Rangers need to find some answers to get coach John Tortorella comfortable using four lines. While Ferriero is remaining in the AHL now, he at least has some NHL experience and could be a better option at some point than Brandon Segal, 29, who played in the Rangers’ season opener for Arron Asham (suspended for that game) before being re-assigned to Connecticut.
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One of coach John Tortorella’s most telling comments following last night’s 4-3 overtime win over the Bruins at Madison Square Garden was that he was “not comfortable” using four lines. At best, Tortorella has been using three lines and, really, it’s more like he’s using his top two lines constantly, though third-liners Brian Boyle (13:49, 3:21 on the penalty kill) and Taylor Pyatt (14:53, one goal) and Carl Hagelin (15:28 including 1:34 on the penalty kill) all contributed last night.

Still, the Rangers need to find that ability to use their entire roster over the short sprint of this 48-game season.

One inherent issue with having Brad Richards center Marian Gaborik and Rick Nash - and, really, it’s hard to complain after last night’s game given Gaborik’s hat trick and the way the line, at times, was able to dominate on the ice - is that it certainly makes the Rangers’ forward lineup top heavy.

To keep those three together, the Rangers must get more offensive contribution from their second line, which started last night as Chris Kreider-Derek Stepan-Ryan Callahan, though with Kris Newbury recalled from Connecticut (AHL) after last night’s game and Tortorella saying the organization had to discuss whether to send Kreider back to the Whale, I doubt the rookie starts there tonight. More likely, Carl Hagelin will go to the second line. One really good sign for the Rangers going forward was the nine hits and four blocked shots attributed to Callahan, who had been somewhat invisible the first two games. As stated many times, Callahan’s all-out play, especially on the forecheck, tends to be a catalyst for the Rangers in first periods.

The fourth-liners - last night Mike Rupp-Jeff Halpern-Stu Bickel with Bickel in for Arron Asham (groin strain) - rarely saw the ice as a unit last night. Halpern led the crew with 7:38 of ice time thanks to 2:34 on the penalty kill but he continues to struggle in the faceoff circle, going 0 for 4. After finishing fifth in the NHL last season in faceoffs while with the Capitals, Halpern is now 7 of 21 this season.

The Rangers don’t need to roll four lines on an every-game basis. But Tortorella needs to at least trust that he has that option if he wants it.

Also, click to go below to read last night’s final game story for more on the Rangers’ first win of the season.
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Rookie left wing Chris Kreider may be Whale bound after playing just 7:21 in Wednesday’s 4-3 overtime win over the Bruins, committed a bad hooking penalty in the first period and sat for long stretches in both the second and third periods.

In a move that’s not necessarily tied to that opening sentence, the Rangers have recalled center Kris Newbury, per the AHL web site. Newbury could be recalled because of Arron Asham’s questionable status after he missed tonight’s game with a mild groin strain.

First things first, though. Here’s the game story from The Record. You could definitely see signs of the old, blue-collar Rangers. They blocked 25 shots tonight after totaling 26 through the first two games, including 10 in a 3-1 season-opening loss at Boston.

Kreider played 33 games for Connecticut (AHL) during the NHL lockout.

“He just hasn’t played well, I don’t have a reason,” Rangers coach John Tortorella said. “It’s something we really need to talk about as an organization. I still think he needs to go through the process.”
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What’s been expected was confirmed just prior to the game with Arron Asham (day to day with a mild groin strain suffered Sunday vs. Pittsburgh) out, Stu Bickel moving to the fourth line and Steve Eminger dressing for the first time this season in Bickel’s spot as the sixth defenseman

Also, Marian Gaborik will join the top line with Brad Richards and Rick Nash.

The Rangers are looking to avoid losing their first three games, as they did last season when they went 0-1-2. The last time they lost the first three in regulation was 1998-99, went they started with four losses, then a tie before getting their first win.

Coach John Tortorella was in an expansive mood before Wednesday’s game in describing his team’s 0-2-0 start, saying the Rangers showed “no resiliency” Sunday after the Penguins scored their second goal. Defensively on that goal, Tortorella said Bickel got “smoked,” Chris Kreider “watches” a player go by and Michael Del Zotto wanted “nothing to do” with contact.

And when asked whether his lineup becomes too top heavy by putting Marian Gaborik on the top line with Brad Richards and Rick Nash, Tortorella said, “Right now, we don’t lose any balance because we have only one guy playing, Nash.”

As far as the expectations heaped upon the Rangers this season as a Stanley Cup favorite, Tortorella said, ““I think we have to deal with it eventually. I don’t think that’s what’s going on right now.”

Then again, Tortorella said if the Rangers don’t find that tough mindset from last season, that will to play, any discussion about expectations will be rendered moot. Tortorella said, though, he trusts his guys and expects them to snap out of it quickly.

And real quick looking ahead to tomorrow night at Philadelphia, the Flyers will be without C Brayden Schenn, suspended for one game today by the NHL and also Daniel Briere, who is out with a wrist injury.

About

ANDREW GROSS covers the New York Rangers for The Record and Herald News, having joined the North Jersey Media Group in November 2007. Gross also covered the Rangers and New York Jets, as well as St. John’s basketball and Army football, for Gannett Newspapers and The Journal News (N.Y.). He graduated from Syracuse University in 1989 with a degree in newspaper journalism.